DeKalb County Rated “Good” in State Audit

A state audit of DeKalb County returned a rating of “good” Wednesday.

State Auditor Nicole Galloway released her regularly-scheduled audit of DeKalb County and found concerns about accounting controls and procedures in several county offices and provided recommendations to address those findings.

Galloway said, “Our audit of DeKalb County government found several areas that need improvement to better serve county taxpayers. Audits help show what government can do to become more efficient and effective, and I encourage county officials to move forward with the recommendations in this report.”

The audit found both the sheriff and the prosecuting attorney do not review accounting records to ensure payments received have been properly recorded, deposited and disbursed to the appropriate parties. The sheriff’s office also does not timely disburse fees and other receipts to the county collector-treasurer and has not established adequate controls and procedures over seized property. The prosecuting attorney does not ensure a monthly list of liabilities is reconciled to the bank balance and has not established procedures to routinely follow up on outstanding checks.

The audit also discussed the need for improvement in controls and procedures at the Daviess-DeKalb Regional Jail, including presenting a complete budget that complies with state law, preparing adequate bank reconciliations for the inmate/commissary account, and having accurate commissary inventory records. The jail also does not have adequate procedures to ensure all inmate account balances are refunded upon release.

The audit also found the county commission needs to announce publicly the specific section of the law allowing the commission to go into closed session and record that in the meeting minutes. In addition, the audit found, procedures to account for county property are not adequate.

The full report can be found here.